Citation

Bertsch S, Matthews K. Curr. Psychol. 2021; ePub(ePub): ePub.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2021, Holtzbrinck Springer Nature Publishing Group)

DOI

10.1007/s12144-021-02278-2

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

Research on the issues surrounding false allegations of assault against men has been largely based on review of official documentation, not on questions asked of the women themselves. This limits what we know about variables that might contribute explanation as to why some women deliberately lie about having been assaulted. In our survey of 255 women (both college students and community members), 18 admitted they had fictitiously claimed to have been assaulted either to official investigators, or to friends and family members. Their stated motives included revenge, fear, and embarrassment. Our participants also rated the extent to which they could imagine a situation in which they would make a(nother) false claim in the future--101 (39.6%) of them rated this item positively to differing degrees. We also examined individual difference variables including the 'dark triad' traits and four measures of sexist beliefs. While Machiavellianism and psychopathy had positive relationships with how easily participants could imagine making a false claim, several of the sexism beliefs explained more variance in imagined intent to falsify a claim, particularly among the women who admitted having made one previously.

Language: en